T-MOBILE’S HIGHS AND LOWS

It’s the end of an era for T-Mobile, as their sponsor announces its decision to quit. After two Tour de France wins, an Ullrich-centric strategy and many comings and goings, the team that recently re-emerged as one of our strongest hopes in the fight to race clean, is no more.

Here are the highs and lows of the past 16 years…

1991 Telekom
Squads first win by Ad Wijnands at the Etoile de Besseges

1995 Deutsche Telekom
Bolts and Ullrich do a road race and time trial double at the German Championships.
Bolts win is third successive road race title for team. The team makes its Tour debut and Zabel takes two satges.

1996 Deutsche Telekom
Bjarne Riis joins the squad and wins the Tour. Zabel wins the first of six successive Gren jerseys. Bolts takes the Clasica San Sebastian.

1997 Deutsche Telekom
Giovanni Lombardi arrives to help Zabel?s lead-out train. Zabel wins the Via Roma, San Remo. Ullrich wins the Tour and HEW-Cyclassics Cup to become a German superstar.

1998 Deutsche Telekom
Zabel?s Milan-San Remo victory is the only real result this year.

1999 Deutsche Telekom
Ullrich misses the Tour through injury, but recovers to win the Vuelta and the World Time Trial in Treviso, Italy. Jens Heppner wins the Tour of Germany.

2000 Deutsche Telekom
Alexandre Vinokourov joins from Casino. Zabel wins two classics: Milan-San Remo and Amstel Gold. Ullrich is second to Armstrong in the Tour but wins the Olympic road Race. Andreas Kloden wins Paris-Nice and the Tour of the Basque country.

2002 Deutsche Telekom
Ullrich misses the Tour, is suspended for using recreational drugsand leaves the team. A win for Vinokourov at Paris-Nice and Zabel?s points at the Vuelta are the only things to cheer.

2006 T-Mobile
Jan Ullrich is sacked on the eve of the Tour de France as it emerges he was involved with Dr Fuentes – the man at the centre of the Madrid blood doping ring. The sponsor ends it’s relationship with Olaf Ludwig and brings in Bob Stapleton to run the team.

2007 T-Mobile
A new look T-Mobile is presented to the press at their January training camp. The team leads the fight against doping with many internal controls and riders speaking out against doping – making some enemies in the peloton. In May, Rolf Aldag and Erik Zabel make high profile confessions of EPO use, as does CSC boss Bjarne Riis. Partick Sinkewitz then tests positive for testosterone in the summer.

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